


The Escape

by FirenationMoonseeker



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Other, Past Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-19 11:27:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17000745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FirenationMoonseeker/pseuds/FirenationMoonseeker
Summary: Prince Lotor, heir of the Galra throne was disobedient and suffered a punishment by his Dayak. His attempt to escape the palace of Daibazaal proves successful, as he gets help from a timebender called Mya.





	The Escape

She tried to remember everything Slav had told her. For days Moonseeker had been rehearsing the right movements in the simulator to create the benevolent circumstances for this one chance they had. It had been hard. Slav calculating probabilities and she with her space-time bending abilities clashing over which reality would most probably happen. And the Olkari shapeshifting suit she was wearing was very constricting and hardly left her air to breathe. But here she was. Disguised as a Dayak, humming the Marseillaise, carrying a basket of juniper berries in the residential wing of the imperial palace of Daibazaal. It was not the first time that she had infiltrated an alien race. She was a timebender after all which required her to take on different roles to solve different problems. Being a Dayak required many skills in languages and Galran customs. Slav had been a great resource to outfit her with a credible biography, so that she - aided with her timebending skills and the Olkari shapeshifting suit - got a position as an Assistant to the Head Dayak.

  
She tried to remember every detail Slav had told her. Everything she needed to rescue a small boy whose fate would decide the future of the whole universe.  
This evening had been a horrible one for small Lotor. He had spoken up against his father Emperor Zarkon and although he was just a five year old boy the Head Dayak had sought a hard punishment for him. He was belted and then was supposed to face his biggest fears locked up in a dark chamber without food or water for a whole night and day. Yet something unexpected had happened. He had cried at first, shaking from fear and pain, but then he heard how someone passed the cell and opened the door, just slightly to let a sliver of light in. They did not enter. They just left the door open. Lotor was afraid, he was wet from crying and he was too scared to move in the dark. But here was a sliver of light coming from the door. He feared it was a trap. The Dayak would be waiting behind the door to find out about his deviance, his non-acceptance of the punishment and punish him even harder for that. His body was full of painful sores. A thousand thoughts raced through Lotors mind. He had courage. He was a Prince, a fighter. Lotor dried his tears. He tried not to sniffle. He was all stiff in fear, yet his tiny feet moved towards the light. His hands were sticky from snot and tears. The Dayak would not object to him to go to the door, though, would she? He heard music coming from outside. Music! Someone...humming? He needed to look. He would be allowed to peek through even. As long as his feet stayed indoors, he would not disobey her. Lotor moved slowly to the slit and peeked out. The hallway was empty. Where were the guards?  
Moonseeker walked around the corner, humming. It was the change of guards and they noticed her and saluted. Being a Dayak of the imperial family came with perks. "The Prince Regent is not allowed to eat anything today!", said one of the guards. Her charming ways opened doors quickly and she used all her charms on the guards. She beamed from ear to ear. "Oh, what a shame. I have these wonderful juniper berries. They'll all go to waste... Would you like to have them. They spoil so quickly...the Head Dayak doesn't like them anyway." The word about the juniper berries got around quickly. Soon most of the guards had passed by taking a handfull to munch, all hoping that Zarkon would still be held up at his counsel meeting long enough not to spot them eating on duty. Getting them from a Dayak meant that it was acceptable within Galra protocol and maybe there was even some ancient ritual they were honoring with it? The guards returned to their posts and started dreaming of junipers and flower fields. Moonseeker had drenched the berries in a mind-altering drug, which would make the guards appear normal, whilst catching them in a dreamlike state lasting several hours. Not all of the guards had taken them but enough to open that one pathway out of the palace where they would not be detected.

  
Moonseeker passed the guards towards Lotors cell humming the Marseillaise. Slav had told her, that humming this melody was crucial for the success of the mission. She had to hum loud enough to get Lotor to exit the cell by his own will and run down the hallway towards her. Every second was crucial and there was just ONE chance they had. She saw little fingers peek out of the dark room. Now she had to remember every step Slav had told her. She shifted into her human form. She had just mere moments to convince him to come with her.  
Lotor's head peeked out of the room. His big blue eyes were swollen from crying. He mustered all his courage and stepped into the hallway. He would run away or die trying. There was a woman with a basket standing at the end of the hallway. She looked nice, she had a warm smile and she was not a Dayak. What was she doing here? She was humming a song and waving to him to approach and to close the door behind him. The guards did not seem to notice her or mind her being around. His mind raced. He was afraid of being punished again. But in his young life he had learnt that there probably would be even harder punishments awaiting him in the future and maybe he would not survive them. He was the crown Prince, but he had neither a mother nor a father who cared. And the Dayaks changed frequently. He realized that this might be his one chance to get away. He ignored his pain and started to run as fast as he could towards the woman at the end of the hallway.  
When he reached her, she smiled and she took his hands looking into his eyes. Her hand caressed his hair, it was all wet, also the peculiar strand protruding out like an antenna and his eyes were swollen from crying. "Hello, Prince Lotor. I am Mya. You are safe now. We will leave this place. But you need to do as I say, is that ok?" - "Who are you?" - "I am a timebender. I travel through time and space to fix things. I will change my shape now to lead you out of the palace. You need to follow me. I will turn into a guard, then into a Dayak, then into myself again. Let me show you..." Moonseeker remembered the right sequence. She shifted into a guard, then into her junior Dayak shape which seemed to terrify Lotor, but then swiftly back into her human form. She hoped that the Dayak version had not intimidated Lotor too much. She took his hands and looked into his terrified blue eyes. "Everything will be better, I promise." She waited for him to give her the signal to go. She heard footsteps approaching. Their window of opportunity was closing. Lotor nodded. They were good to go. "Now run!", Moonseker said and shifted into her guard form. They raced through several hallways guarded by dreaming guards who did not notice them. Now if everything was according to plan they'd need to wait a few moments in a robot hold in the hallway. "Where are we going?", Lotor asked. "To a house in the woods and to my own boy. He is just as old as you and you both will get along very well.".

  
They squeezed into the robot hold and Mya shifted into the form of the Junior Dayak. She held Lotor close to her and whispered: "Now we need to act. You must act very sad. And I will play a very strict Dayak, ok? But it will just be make-believe." They emerged in the right moment when some priests of Haggar had passed the robot hold. They walked towards the exit of the residential wing. The guards on the other side of the gate had not tasted any juniper berries, yet they also did not know about Lotors punishment.  
The stern looking Dayak walked out of the gate. Her strong hands were pushing the crying boy forward. The Guards felt uncomfortable. The Galra in general loved wild children and they did object how the imperial family handled their weakling child. But nobody dared say anything against Emperor Zarkon. Galra children would fight in the mud, climb trees and compete against each other to show who was the wildest one in the bunch. This boy was different. He seemed meek. The Dayak took the boy to a small distance vessel. It was not uncommon for a Dayak to do field trips with children to teach them about Daibazaal wildlife or artefacts. But now it was almost night. Yet questioning a Dayak meant questioning the choices of the Imperial family. The vessel sought permission to take off, then was airborne and swiftly left the perimeter of the Daibazaal palace.

  
Now came the tricky part of the plan. Mya disabled all automatic systems in the ship and started to fly manually. This would make tracking them more difficult. "Please don't push any buttons, Lotor, ok?" Mya looked at the boy, who now seemed more relaxed. He was sitting on the chair munching dried Munga seeds. He seemed to do better. Eating, drinking and putting on dry clothes had helped a lot to raise his general wellbeing. But healing would require much more work and time. "Are we there yet?", Lotor asked and Mya giggled nervously. She was insecure of how much of her plan she should share with Lotor, but he seemed a very smart little boy and she knew not to underestimate children. She told him about her plan. His curiosity was evident through the fear and the pain and she smiled.  
Her plan was to access the area where the Kral Zera was held. Only the archivist would be present at such a day. Yet she was not interested in the arena of the Kral Zera, but the plateau on top of one of the hills. During the last Kral Zera, one of the contestants had died and his ship was still standing there, unguarded and forgotten. The ship itself was of minor interest, but it had smuggled a Balmeran crystal which Mya needed to transform the imperial short range vessel into a long distance spaceship. Only then would she be able to pierce Daibazaals gas clouds and exit to open space where Slav and her crew were awaiting them hiding in an asteroid belt.

  
Where was the Balmeran crystal? Lotor approached her and touched the ship. His Altean marks started to glow. He smiled. "It's here!" Mya produced her laser sword and cut a hole into the hull of the vessel. There was a secret compartment underneath the aft. The crystal was as big as herself. They pulled it out of the ship and shoved it into the passenger deck of their small distance transporter where Mya hooked it up to her engine. She had spent weeks adapting the vessel to accomodate a Balmeran crystal as energy source. Now she would see if the work had been successful.  
"When I say now, you push slide this lever up slowly, ok?", Lotor was concentrating with his tiny hand on the lever. It was hard to move! And his arms were still sore.  
"Now!", he pushed the lever up, with all his force yet slowly and the Balmeran crystal started to glow. They just needed enough thrust and energy to create a protective shield. It worked. Mya started the engine and they were airborne, swiftly approaching the first layer of the Daibazaal atmosphere. They had put on their helmets and were breathing the purified air. The air pressure dropped in the vessel, they felt how the force pushed them back into their seats.

  
Mya knew that by now the Head Dayak would soon go to the cell to check on Lotor. Once she would find the chamber empty she'd assume that he had gone into his room. They would not alert Zarkon immediately, but search the whole palace inside out before admitting their failure. This would give them ample time to flee.

  
The shields held and after a steep ascent they were ejected into open space. Mya activated the additional thrusters and positioned herself in a trajectory towards the asteroid belt. Now came the difficult part. First they both had to put on their space suits. Thankfully the ship had suits for all shapes and sizes as the Galra were very diverse. Lotor was afraid, but she was able to calm him down. They held each others hands and stepped out of the ship, breathing and counting to ten. Then a long wormlike creature appeared and they held on to it, leaving the imperial vessel behind. Mya held on to Lotor, trying to calm him down by cracking jokes and sound confident. The worm moved through space slowly, but at this time Slav was supposed to emit light from his ship and as worms do this one would wiggle towards it transporting them safely and laregly undetectable to Mya's ship. She saw the ship and a small glider which approached to pick them up.  
A short while later Mya and Lotor stepped through the gates of her spaceship. "Welcome back, Commander!", her first officer said, beaming at Lotor. "We are ready to do a time jump. The Galra have noticed Lotors disappearance and soon the whole perimeter will be full of Galra vessels." Mya went to a window and pointed out at their imperial vessel in the distance which by now had reached the asteroid belt and collided with the first Asteroid. Within minutes the whole ship exploded, shards of it and the balmeran crystal floating into space.  
"Lotor, in this reality, you were abducted today and as your vessel exploded everyone will conclude you died trying to flee Daibazaal. But you are free now. One day you will return as a the rightful heir to the Galra throne, but in the meantime you will live a life in safety, without violence and among friends. We will do a timejump now to access another time and dimension. My ship here will create a wormhole only instants later and flee to another quadrant. These people who hurt you will never find you unless you want to return by your own volition."  
Lotor followed Mya who went into a room with a big round gate. She held onto the frame and asked Lotor to do the same. His Altean markings were glowing and she took his tiny hand into hers. "Close your eyes, count to three and then start walking, ok?" When Lotor closed his eyes Mya stepped behind him, putting her hands on his shoulders. She started to glow. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. The gate opened and they walked through.

  
A piercing light jolted into Lotor's consciousness and propelled him to drop to his knees. What had happened? He was in a forest, surrounded by tall trees. The air was crisp and he spotted a house at the edge of a hill. Far away the snow of a mountain range reflected the light of the sun. Below the hill stretched a big city, but here on the hill everything was quiet. He heard the laughter of children coming from the garden. "Shall we go and see?", Mya asked. Lotor nodded. Mya took his hand and they approached the house.


End file.
